Power
by Foxtrot Agent 21
Summary: Hinata and Naruto are both students at a military high school like none other. Here they are trained for extreme combat alongside their regular studies. They are placed on combat teams that they not only train with, but live with. All seems to be going great for the two students, but when one of their teammates goes rogue in search of power, their world begins to fall apart.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello. I own none of the characters in this story, except the ones I say are mine. Ditto for the places.**

.- .

_Hinata jogged through the town_, having no idea where she was or where she was going, but not really caring. She had moved into the town a few hours ago and had only just been able to leave her house. As she ran down the rather crowded streets, people stared at the girl darting in between them. Surprisingly, she had decided to wear a tank top and gym shorts, even though snow still lay on the ground. Finally, after running five miles, Hinata came to a stop in front of a gym. Its windows were tinted and the letters on the sign were faded but Hinata could easily see that people were moving inside. Grinning as she wiped away the sweat on her brow, the teen slammed open the door. Almost everyone inside of the small gym turned to look at the girl but Hinata ignored them.

Inside of a boxing ring in the middle of the gym stood an extremely large teen and his downed opponent. The teen was easily two meters tall and shirtless, showing off an incredible amount of muscle for someone who looked to be still in high school. He wore skin-tight black shorts and little else, except for orange-tinted sunglasses that covered his eyes. His head was shaved down to a buzz cut and his mouth appeared to be set in a permanent frown as he picked up the grown man currently lying on the floor. He set the smaller man down on a stack of mats on the side of the ring where a few people immediately began to administer first aid.

It was then that the giant turned to look at Hinata, his expression unreadable behind his sunglasses. He stared at her for a minute before calmly walking over to the front of the ring and parting the ropes so she could get through. Hinata's grin widened. The giant had just read her mind.

- ... .

_Hinata woke up the next morning_ feeling rather sore in her arms. Her impromptu martial arts match yesterday had given her more of a workout than she'd had in a long time. She had to hand it to the giant; he could really take a punch. She pressed the button to open the metal door of her room and stepped out into the hallway, where the other girls were headed to the showers. Hinata grabbed her uniform and walked quickly to the communal showers, showering as quickly as she could, so as not to be late on her first day. She could see that the other students felt the same, as they were going even faster than her. Once she was done she put on the uniform and was mildly distressed to find that it was skintight.

"Oh this isn't going to be good, I just know it," she muttered to herself as she began to put on the rather "flattering" uniform.

- ... .

Naruto walked into his new class excitedly, hardly able to wait to start the class for once. The only downside to his otherwise happy day was the grey, skintight uniform he had to wear. It was like a wet suit, except it went all the way up to his chin. Surprisingly, everyone had the same uniform, be they male or female, which quite a few of the guys enjoyed immensely for obvious reasons. Naruto however, was solely focused on getting through the first day without a problem. As more students poured in, however, he got the feeling that that was going to be a lot harder than he had hoped. Quite a few of the other students looked like they were here merely to pick a fight with someone, and Naruto had always been very bad at refusing challenges.

One student caught his eye out of the forty-odd group gathered there. Not because of anything the student had done, but because she didn't look like she belonged at an academy like this. She was a plain type of beautiful, without any makeup or other beauty enhancements. She appeared rather frail and slim and she was a good deal shorter than most of the other students, although Naruto couldn't quite tell her exact height because she was shrinking down in her chair. It was almost as if she didn't want to be here. The only thing that convinced him otherwise was the one look he got at her eyes when she glanced over to him.

Even if she may not look it, she was meant to be here. The look in her eyes had convinced him of that.

A few minutes later, the teacher walked into the room, immediately earning the silence of all of those present. He walked slowly to the desk positioned right at the front of the room and ever so slowly sat down. He sat there for what felt like an eternity before he finally spoke, his voice clear despite the fact that a mask covered his mouth. "Hello everyone, and thank you for applying to Konoha Military Academy. My name is Kakashi Hatake and here we shall test your skills and mold into effective fighting units for the good of our great country, blah blah blah, you know the speech. Here's the part that you actually need to know: None of you are actual students here."

Kakashi waited while all of the not-so-students yelled their disapproval. Well, almost all. Naruto didn't, even though he was more than a little pissed off, and neither did the girl Naruto had noticed. He knew this because he was still watching her.

Finally, when it was quiet enough, Kakashi continued. "That being said, there's still one test that you all have to complete before you all will be fully accepted into this academy. Now before you idiots ask what the final test is going to be, I'll just show you," true to his word, the teacher pressed a button on his desk, which raised the large metal wall behind him to reveal a boxing ring in a large room easily the size of the classroom. "Now, once everyone is in the room behind me, we can begin the test."

- . - .-

Once everyone was surrounding the large boxing ring Kakashi hopped into the ring. He stood and faced the crowd of students who knew nothing of the smirk hidden beneath his mask. He lifted up a remote dramatically with one hand as he addressed the anxious crowd. "Now then, to become a student here, all you have to do is last thirty seconds in the ring," Kakashi pressed a button on the remote. "The bad part, however, is that you have to do it against him." as he said the last word a giant of a man fell from the ceiling in white training armor.

The training armor for the Military Academy was much more sparse and comfortable than actual battle armor, but that was to be expected. It covered mostly the upper chest and back of the body, while leaving only a little for the fists and lower legs. It also came with a helmet, though they were rather rudimentary compared to a battle suit's helmet. It was merely there to absorb blows, not assist in combat. The giant didn't wear a helmet, so Hinata immediately recognized him as the man from the day before.

"Now then," came Kakashi's horribly cheerful voice, "who wants to go up against him first?" Hinata's hand immediately shot up out of the crowd, all alone except for two others. Had Hinata known their names or even who they were, she would've recognized them as Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha. However, none of that mattered to the giant as he spotted Hinata and immediately stomped over to her, stopping at the ropes. "Maine, what the hell are you doing?" The giant known as Maine merely pointed to Hinata, his murderous gaze never leaving her calm one. "Fine then, looks like you're the lucky one today. For some reason the big idiot really likes you, so get up here."

Hinata nodded and walked quickly to the ring, the other students parting before her. Once again, Maine parted the ropes for her to enter before he pointed to the opposite side of the ring. Hinata, though confused, walked over to where Maine had pointed and was mildly surprised when mechanical arms sprouted from the floor and began to place white training armor on her. Once she was all suited up, she turned to face Maine and got into her standard fighting stance. When she saw Maine get into his, Hinata grew apprehensive. He hadn't used a stance in their spar yesterday.

"Alright, now that you two are ready, let's begin," Kakashi said cheerfully as he took a small novel out of his back pocket. "You may begin."

Maine rushed in immediately, sending a very well telegraphed right hook towards the much smaller girl, who ducked under it and sent a jab into his side and then slid back. Like the day before, Maine recovered quickly and instantly turned to her new position. He sent a flurry of left and right jabs that she found it harder and harder to block. Stamina had never been her strongest suit while the giant had no problem continuing. If she was gonna last she had to strike fast and hard because he was certainly doing much better than he had just the day before.

After blocking a particularly nasty downward swing she jumped behind him and delivered two strikes to his back before ducking under his arm as he swung it wildly behind him. She punched him twice in the gut and once in the throat as he attempted to recover, finishing by grabbing his head with both hands and slamming her knee into it. Maine fell to the ground and lay there for a few seconds before getting back up. He let out a low roar and charged at her haphazardly, taking a painful blow to the head as he tackled her down to the ground. He sat up immediately and began to send a giant fist down towards her face at the same time that Hinata's was a few inches away from his throat. However, a loud buzzing noise made both of them halt their vicious strikes, mere inches from their targets.

"Now now you two, it's been well over thirty seconds," Kakashi said admonishingly as he walked in front of them. "So how about you two separate and let someone else have a turn?"

Maine glared at Hinata some more before getting up and offering a hand to her. Hinata grabbed and was surprised when he literally pulled her up and off of her feet before shoving her towards the edge of the ring. Fighting the urge to strike him, she turned to the teacher who was looking admonishingly at Maine. "Where do I put the armor?" she asked calmly, turning Kakashi's attention to her.

"Oh, you passed, so it's yours now," he said as he smiled to her from beneath his mask, "Now then, who's up next?"

The rest of the sparring went by without much interest for Hinata. The two other people who had raised their hands up both passed, albeit not as smoothly as she had. The black-haired one had a black eye that was quickly swelling and the blonde one had a cut going up his head from where Maine had knocked his helmet off. Only a few other people had passed, with Maine taking down thirty-one people in less than thirty seconds. As he knocked out the last student at the twenty-eight second mark he fell to a knee, breathing heavily.

Hinata stared at him as he struggled to give up, making it obvious that even he had his limits. Kakashi frowned at the teen before turning to address the remaining ten people, "Well, you students lucky enough to have survived in the ring with Maine here can now consider yourselves to be Konoha Academy students, congratulations. Now it's time to get your teams assigned to you. Your teams will vary by what you wanted to do when you applied, and what we think you would be best at. You will receive your new teams when you get back to your rooms, along with your new living quarters. You are dismissed."

Hinata headed for the exit along with the other teens only to hear Kakashi call her name. "Ms. Hyuuga, come here."

Mentally cursing, she turned around with a smile. "Yes sir?"

"I need you to take Maine here to the infirmary for me," he told her as he walked out of the ring and past her, waving as he went, "Thanks!"

"W-wait, why me?" Hinata could not have been more astounded at this request. His answer shocked her even more.

"Because he likes you."

.-

**Well now, if you've made it this far, I thank you. Now, just to point it out, this is a NaruHina story. It may seem like that isn't the case at some points, but I assure you, it is. Unless of course, I change my mind. But I don't really see that happening.**

**NOTE: Maine is not an OC of mine. If you can tell me where he's from, I'll be very impressed. Oh, and I've changed his name so as not to make it too easy. You know what, if you can tell me where he's from I'll give you an OC in this story, just send me what you want them to be like along with who you think Maine is.**

**Agent Foxtrot 21, out.**


	2. Chapter 2

**And we're back. In this chapter, teammates are met and mortally wounded. This ought to be fun.**

.- .

Hinata walked down the metal hallways next to Maine, warily watching the slumped giant out of the corner of her eye. Maine had taken a beating during his forty back-to-back fights and was barely able to walk to the infirmary. There were multiple cuts and bruises on his face and Hinata almost felt bad for him. Almost. Then she thought of the damage that had been inflicted upon his opponents, and what would've happened to her had the buzzer not gone off.

For whatever reason, Maine had decided to hate her with a passion, going so far as to injure himself for a chance at hurting her badly. Even though she was certain that Hatake had been joking with her, she couldn't help but wonder why he had said that Maine liked her. It was obviously just the opposite. It bothered her more than she liked and so she decided to solve it. "Hey Maine, why do you hate me?" she asked the giant, gaining his attention.

He stared at her as he walked slowly down the hallway, his face blank of the murderous rage she had seen earlier. He didn't reply for an entire minute, as though he was deciding whether or not to answer her. When he finally did, Hinata was not surprised to find it extremely deep and guttural, as though he wasn't used to talking. "You won."

"What, you mean against you?" Hinata asked quizzically, not really understanding his logic. He nodded. "So what, everyone loses sometimes. It's not that big a deal."

Maine shook his head and started walking faster, much to Hinata's irritation. "Let me guess, you've never lost a match?" Maine stopped and turned around to glare at her. "Twice." This surprised her more than she let on. After all, she had won the day before from tiring him out and, as he had just proven with his forty matches, that took some doing. "So who else has beaten you besides me?" she asked, honestly curious to know who else had taken out the giant.

The answer she received chilled her to the bone. "Sig." Maine turned around and stalked off slowly towards the infirmary, leaving Hinata behind to stare at him as he ducked into the room. Shaking her head, she scowled at where he had just been before turning around and jogging off to her dorm, following the paint on the floor to the girls' rooms. When she pressed the button to open the door to her room she was shocked to find all of her things had been taken. In their place was a slip of paper laying on her bed.

_Student Hinata Hyuuga, report to dorm room 219 on level 2. Your things have been moved to this location._

Hinata sighed as she finished reading the note. They could've at least let her know they were gonna move her stuff.

- ... .

Naruto was unpacking his stuff when the third member of his team walked in. he was pleasantly surprised to find that it was the girl who had gone up against Maine first. She had done better than anyone else who had fought the giant, so she had to be the best first year student. Just like he thought, he was getting placed on a team with all of the best people from the spar. When he had first walked into the room he had spotted the black-haired teen with the black eye lying down in the bed furthest from the door. He had done better than Naruto in the spar, taking only a single hit from Maine, while Naruto had taken many.

Naruto stood up and stuck his hand out to the girl, smiling as he greeted her. "Hey, you're Hinata, right?"

She shook his hand firmly as she asked in a rather quiet voice, "How did you know that?"

"I heard Hatake call you back when I was leaving," he told her, grinning when he saw her mentally scolding herself. It was cute. "But yeah, my name's Naruto, and the guy pretending to be asleep over there is Sasuke."

"Why is he pretending to be asleep?" Hinata questioned, looking over Naruto's shoulder at Sasuke.

"No idea," came Naruto's happy answer as he gestured to the one bed with a curtain around it, "Now, I'm going to go ahead and guess that that's your side of the room."

Hinata nodded and immediately headed off to her bed, much to Naruto's disappointment. There was absolutely nothing to do around here. He sighed as he sat down on his bed and stared at the ground, bored out of his mind but determined to wait and see who the final member of their team was, because even though there were only nine people who passed, there were four beds in the large room. "Hey Sasuke, who do you think our last teammate is?" he asked the brooding boy, who opened one eye to glare at him.

"How would I know that, idiot?" Sasuke answered, already tired of hearing the blonde's voice.

"It's called a guess, jeez. Hinata who do you think we'll get?" Naruto asked, swinging his legs around to face the unpacking girl. She looked up at him to reply when she was interrupted by the sound of the metal door sliding open. Naruto started getting up to greet the newcomer but stopped as he saw who it was. Hinata however merely glared at the man from where she sat. "What are you doing here Maine?"

The giant turned to her with a look of mild surprise and annoyance on his face before muttering just loudly enough for the others to hear, "Orders." Hinata glared at him some more before turning back to her things. Naruto looked between the two of them before walking up and sticking out his hand to the large man, smiling nervously at him. "Hey Maine, my name's Naruto." he was met with silence. "So, uh, that's your bed next to the brooding guy's." Maine nodded his thanks and walked over to his bed, the only one with only a backpack on it. Maine opened the backpack and pulled out black shorts and white t-shirt, before laying them on the bed and beginning to get out of his uniform.

"What the hell are you doing Maine?" Hinata yelled, staring in shock at the huge man who merely stared at her before continuing getting undressed. While Naruto looked between the righteously angry Hinata and the oblivious Maine, Sasuke finally sat up and leveled a bored look at Hinata. "You do realize that since we're going to be living together this is something you're going to have to get used to, right?"

Hinata turned her glare to Sasuke, "He could've at least warned me that he was going to change so that I could close the curtain. And anyway, why are you defending him?"

"Let me answer your question with a question," Sasuke smirked at her as he narrowed his eyes, "why haven't you closed the curtain yet, seeing as Maine is already done changing?"

Both Naruto and Hinata turned to watch as Maine walked out of the room, Hinata with a blush on her face and Naruto with a quizzical look on his. Sasuke continued to smirk as Hinata glared at him before lying back down on his bed. Hinata pulled the curtain around her bed blocking her from view. And Naruto looked down at the uniform still on his body and couldn't help but wonder, "How'd he get out of this thing that fast?"

- ... .

Maine punched his target with no reserve, throwing all of his force into every hit. He slammed his fists into his opponent with abandon, drawing wide-eyed stares from all the other patrons of the gym. Eventually, as Maine continued to massacre his target, the owner of the gym walked over to him and pushed the nearly broken punching bag out of his reach. Maine, who had been mid-swing, stumbled forward before turning to glare at the owner of the gym. The bald man stared coolly back at him, before asking in a worried tone, "Maine, what's wrong? I haven't seen you like this since… oh," the owner's eyes widened as the realization hit him. Then he glared at the larger man before smacking him upside the head, "Dammit Maine, you know losing a fight every now and then isn't the worst thing in the world, and I don't care if you are one of the best fighters I've ever seen."

Maine ducked his head and sighed, before nodding and turning to face the owner. "Yes Coach," he mumbled in his deep voice.

"Now then, the next time you see the girl who beat you, I want you to apologize for your rotten behavior, got me?" Maine glared heavily at Coach, who glared back at him. He knew that Maine would never hurt him. "Got me?" he asked more forcefully, causing Maine to look away from him and nod. "Well that's wonderful, because here she is, now move it."

- . - .-

"Well that's wonderful, because here she is, now move it," Hinata heard a man say towards the back of the gym immediately drawing her attention to Maine and a smaller, graying man who were both staring at her. She tensed as she saw Maine let out a sigh and begin walking towards her, and was jaw-droppingly surprised when the giant knelt down in front of her on one knee. The graying man walked up slowly to the dumbstruck Hinata, putting his hand on Maine's shoulder as he spoke, "He wants to apologize for the unsatisfactory behavior he's had lately."

"U-um, it's alright, I guess," Hinata stuttered, not really sure what to do in this kind of situation. "Apology accepted?"

The man chuckled at that. "Unfortunately, the poor boy doesn't speak too much, which is why he resorts to fighting to communicate. And so, I think we can both agree that there's only one way for him to know that you truly accept his apology."

Everyone in the gym stared at Hinata while she tried to figure out just what the man was talking about. "I'm sorry, but I honestly don't know what you're talking about."

"Hit him," the man sighed as Maine looked up at Hinata, his grey eyes staring into her white ones. "I'm serious, just sock him in the face, he'll understand."

Hinata continued to stare into Maine's eyes before looking up at the man standing over him. "I can't do that."

"And why not?"

Hinata stood up to her full height, still a few inches shorter than the man before her. "Because striking a person without proper cause to is wrong, and in this case it'd just be sick. I said I forgave and so I forgive him, I don't need to hurt him to get that across." She turned around before the man could respond and strode out without a glance back, slamming the door behind her. She heard the door open and close a few seconds later but didn't turn around to see who it was. The heavy footsteps thundering after her were answer enough.

She could hear Maine following her around for a while, not saying anything as usual. Finally, after a full five minutes of silence between the two, Hinata turned around, glaring at the giant. "Why are you following me Maine? And don't you dare say it's because you want me to hit you." Silence. "That's what you were going to say, isn't it?" Maine nodded and Hinata sighed. "Just get lost Maine, I don't want to deal with crazy right now." To her immense surprise, Maine nodded and began to walk away. Hinata let out a sigh of relief and turned to walk away when she heard a teen shout behind her, "Hey Maine, you sonuvabitch, take this!"

She whipped around in time to see a teen around her age raise a sidearm to the stunned Maine and fire once into his throat. Hinata sprinted at the man as he prepared to fire more shots into the downed Maine, a maniacal grin on his face. Hinata slapped his hand right as he pulled the trigger, causing the shot to land right next to Maine's right shoulder. She quickly followed it up with a chop to the teen's gut and then a kick to his head. The teen flew into the street, causing a car to swerve to avoid hitting him. Hinata watched him fly with grim satisfaction before she knelt down to next to Maine, her hand pressed against the bleeding hole in the giant's neck.

"Maine, stay with me dammit!"

..-

**Hello everyone, and thanks for reading. I will be updating this regularly on Fridays from now on, unless something comes up, as it usually does in life. However, I hope you liked the little plot twist there, killing off a main character in the second chapter. Please review, thank you. Again.**

**Agent Foxtrot 21, out.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello and welcome to yet another chapter of Power. I hope you enjoy this at least as much as the other chapters, hopefully more so. **

.- .

Naruto sprinted through the hospital as quick as he could before arriving at the ER. He scanned around the people waiting worriedly before finding the blue-haired girl he was looking for. Calming himself down, he walked over to her quickly, trying his best to appear calm for the shaken girl. She didn't even notice his presence until he tapped on her shoulder. "Hey Hinata, how's he holding up?"

"They wouldn't let me in with him," she glared at the doors which Maine had disappeared through less than half an hour earlier, before sighing and allowing a sad look upon her face. "But a doctor came and told that even though he's lasted this long, the odds are still against him living, and that we should prepare for the worst."

Naruto sunk down next to her, taking in what she had told him. "Damn."

"Damn," Hinata agreed, before looking around, "Hey, where's Sasuke? Didn't he hear about Maine too?"

"Yeah, but the bastard said something about Maine's condition not changing regardless if he ran or walked," Naruto scowled at the floor. Just then, Sasuke came through the doors, immediately spotting them and walking slowly over. He sat down wordlessly next to Hinata before closing his eyes and leaning his head back. Naruto glared at him while Hinata stared incredulously at the unfazed teen before Naruto spoke up, "Aren't you even going to ask how he's doing?"

Sasuke cracked one eye open to stare at the blonde. "The man's been shot in the throat. I figured if he had died or pulled through, you would've told me already. As it is, I'm willing to bet it's still up in the air," he said wearily, obviously not in the mood for much talking. "Am I right?"

"Yes," Naruto replied sullenly, not liking his logic but knowing he was right. "But you could at least act like you care even a little bit."

Sasuke let out a sigh before sitting up, sensing a conversation coming. "Why? I didn't know him."

"Yeah, but he was our teammate!" Naruto yelled, drawing the attention of others in the room. "Besides, that's a human life we're talking about, so don't act so cool about it like it doesn't affect you at all."

"You do realize that we're training to take away lives, don't you?" Sasuke chuckled in response, closing his eyes again, "And who cares if he was our teammate? Each of us only interacted with him for about a minute, besides Miss Hyuuga over here, and I seriously doubt her thoughts about him were ever pleasant. Isn't that right, Hyuuga?" Sasuke never looked at the girl, but both he and Naruto had their attention focused on her.

It took her a moment to reply, "No,"

Sasuke smirked triumphantly, "There, see Naruto? Even the person who stopped him from bleeding out in the streets never really liked him."

Naruto gaped at Hinata, not understanding her. How could she so easily agree with the Uchiha? "Hinata?" he questioned, hoping that she had something more to say.

"He's right, Naruto," she whispered, her shoulders shaking as he leaned forward. "As much as I hate to admit it, he's right. The only reason I'm still here is because I feel responsible for him. I'm not here because I care for him."

Naruto looked from Hinata to Sasuke, jaw hanging open in disbelief. Then he shut it angrily and glared at the both of them, before leaping out of his chair and storming outside. He kept going until he was just outside of the ER and leaned his back against the wall. He let out a sigh as he sank down to his knees, thinking about what his new teammates had just told him. He thought over what Sasuke had told him and wondered just why he had joined the Konoha Military Academy. He was against killing in general and yet he had joined the one school where they would teach him the most about how to do it.

When he had signed the application form, he had been thinking about all the lives he'd be able to save, not the ones he'd have to take away to get that done. He would have to take away a life eventually, and that scared him more than anything. Sure, he knew he could do it, but who was he to take away another's life? Now, Naruto had never been much of a thinker, but this had given him a reason to brood. He had been too naïve to believe that everything would be all glory and heroism. "Dammit," he muttered as he gritted his teeth, honestly regretting signing that paper.

"Naruto," he snapped his head up to look up at Hinata, who had somehow opened the ER door without him noticing, "he's gone."

- ... .

Kakashi walked calmly to "principal's" office, trying not to worry about what she could be calling him in for at a time like this. It was well past nine o'clock and if he had to be honest, he had somewhere else to be. He was expecting her to yell at him for the low amount of recruits he kept bringing in, but was surprised when he found three of his students inside her office. He looked past the students to the blonde sitting behind the one desk in the room, asking calmly, "So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your time, ma'am?"

The aged woman merely waved her hand in the general direction of the students. "Ms. Hyuuga, fill Mr. Hatake in on what happened," she commanded, causing the girl to take a step away from her teammates.

"Yes ma'am. Mr. Hatake, Maine died today of a bullet wound to the throat," Hinata told him, drawing Kakashi's full and rather shocked attention. "The attacker had applied to Konoha Military Academy and blamed Maine for his failure of the final entrance exam. That is all."

"Thank you, dismissed," the woman behind the desk said, gesturing for the three students to leave.

Kakashi waited three seconds after the students had left the room before he turned to the woman. "Is it true, General Tsunade?"

General Tsunade, overseer of Konoha Military Academy and director of Special Operations, sighed. "Apparently so. The MD filed an official report and there were plenty of hospital staff that were there when Maine died."

"Still," Kakashi protested, feeling like he was missing something, "Maine is inhumanly strong; it seems unlikely that he would die by one bullet, even if it was to his throat."

Tsunade sighed again, this time angrily, "Fine then, tomorrow you are to go to the hospital and get his body, since you seem to be extremely interested in him."

"W-whoa, let's not get too hasty ma'am!" Kakashi stuttered, dreading the thought of extra work, "I'm just saying that I find it as a shock. Besides, all that money just for him to get himself killed, what a waste."

"Indeed. It really is rather disappointing. Still, we still have the data and we've even improved it," Tsunade stood up with her data pad, pressing a few buttons to make the display appear on the large monitor on one of the walls. The two of them looked at the screen and Kakashi couldn't help but feel impressed. "The next step in the Maine project will far surpass him, in every way."

- ... .

Naruto couldn't help but smirk as he looked upon his downed opponent, feeling a rush of pride surge through him. It had been an entire month since Maine's untimely demise, and Naruto had gotten much better at, well, everything really. He had only been getting A's and B's in his studies and his fighting had improved by leaps and bounds. The latter was much due to his recent one-on-one training sessions with Hinata, arguably the best of the rookies. Of course, she kicked his ass each time they sparred, but he was getting much better; so much so that Hinata had begun to actually start breaking a sweat during their spars.

Naruto stuck his hand down to help his current sparring partner up, the brown-haired teen glaring up at him grudgingly as he took his hand. "Hey, cheer up Kiba," Naruto told the other student as they began to walk back to their classroom with the other students, "We're going to be getting our first missions after studies today, remember?"

Kiba couldn't help but grin at the thought of it. "Finally! I thought we were gonna have to be here for at least, like, a year before they let us do stuff like that."

Naruto grinned back at him as he began to follow his teammates back to their seats, "Same here, although they're probably only going to be low rank missions like guard duty and stuff." He heard Kiba grumble at that as he sat down next to Hinata, who was looking extremely calm, which Naruto had found out to be how she looked when she was containing excitement. Sasuke sat on the other side of Hinata and had on his usual stoic expression with his arms crossed and eyes closed, though his fingers kept tapping against hi arm, betraying his excitement too.

Naruto found no use in containing it and looked eagerly to the front of the class where Kakashi now stood, face stuck in a book that had nothing to do with today's lesson. It was a good five minutes before he started teaching, and that was only because someone had thrown a ball of paper at him to get his attention. "Now then," he addressed the class cheerfully, as though nothing had happened, "today we are going to be learning not about boring subjects like history and math, but about your new focus in life; the Resistance." The entire class, all of whom had only been half paying attention, snapped their eyes to his as his voice suddenly got serious.

"Specifically, we'll be talking today about the Resistance hierarchy. Now, at the bottom of their hierarchy are the civilians that sympathize with their cause. These people often shelter them and help them to safely infiltrate our cities. Next up are the grunts, which aren't really that important. They're cannon fodder, simple as that. Above them are their spies and saboteurs, which, quite honestly, have given us much trouble over the years. Most deal with explosives and underhandedness, and aren't too fond of open confrontation. Next up, however, are the ones that will be most important to you children here."

"You are all trained here specifically to combat the threat that Resistance commandoes pose to our nation. Commandoes are easily the best that the resistance has, and their generals have used them with surprising effectiveness. That's where you lot come in. We put you where their commandoes are most likely to attack and when they do, you kill them. Simple as that. Now then, next are the generals, who we will discuss in more detail next class, although you should be able to guess what it is that they do." Kakashi stopped there, once more pulling out his book to read. He sat there for few minutes before he caught a paper ball and leveled a glare at the student who threw it. "Yes, Hinata?"

She stared coolly back as she spoke, trying not to let anger sink into her voice, "Is that all, Mr. Hatake?"

"No," Kakashi sighed, "There's also the matter of the leader of the resistance, though it's unlikely that any of you will ever encounter him and even if you do, you won't survive it. Now, most of you are smart enough to know who it is, though I'll repeat it for Naruto," Naruto threw another paper ball at Kakashi, who swatted it aside with ease. "We don't know who the leader's name is, but he goes by the alias of 'Sig'. He is incredibly talented in combat, so much so that we've lost multiple teams tasked with the sole purpose of assassinating him. Even worse, he's smart and clever. After all there's a reason that he's the leader of the Resistance, despite being in his late twenties or so." Kakashi sighed as one of his students raised their hand. "Yes Hinata?"

"Maine once told me that he lost a fight to Sig once," Hinata stated, causing everyone to stare at her, including her teammates. Kakashi merely narrowed his eyes. "Is that true?"

"Well, we have no records of that happening or even any saying that Maine has been within 100 miles of Sig," Kakashi told her tiredly, really just wanting class to be over. "That and the fact that he was alive when he told you suggest that he was lying to you. It's a possibility as we have not been monitoring his entire life, but I sincerely doubt it. Are we done?"

Hinata looked downtrodden at hearing that news but nodded anyway to Kakashi, causing the teacher to release a sigh of relief. He picked up his data pad and pressed a few buttons on it, causing a new display to pop up on each of the students own data pads. "These are your first missions, do everything to the letter and there'll be no untoward consequences. You are all to be here at oh-nine-hundred tomorrow, or else. Dismissed."

The students buzzed excitedly as they looked at their very first real life missions, though Naruto couldn't help but groan to his two teammates, "God, we would get a bodyguard mission!"

- . - .-

Naruto poured over his mission details relentlessly, determined not to let such a simple job go to crap. Despite his complaints, he was pleased to find that their mission had been the only one that didn't require a Year Two team. Normally, Naruto would have been pissed, thinking that their mission was wimpy enough that it didn't require a second team, but then he compared his mission details to everyone else's. Their client was a rather wealthy businessman who had ties to the Academy. He was to be giving a speech to increase awareness of how bad the Resistance was inside the city tomorrow and had requested some bodyguards to make sure that the Resistance didn't succeed in taking a shot at him.

Naruto was broken out of his concentration by a tap on the head from Hinata, who was somehow managing to look both irritated and amused at the same time. "I've been calling your name for a full minute now, are we going to go spar or what?"

Naruto grinned up at her, gesturing to his data pad, "Sorry, just want to make sure I don't miss anything. Let's get going."

…-

**Well, I hope all the people who thought they knew what was going on have been thoroughly surprised. I'm not above killing off one of my "pet OCs" for the sake of the story. Anyway, there's a reason I'm doing this on Sunday instead of Friday, and that's because I'm not gonna be able to do it this Friday, probably. Anyway, review if you want to, V.**

**Foxtrot Agent 21, out.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Long time no see Naruto fans. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'll explain why it's so short at the end. Now, let's begin.**

... .- .. .-..

Naruto sat up wearily, his body already sore from the beating he was taking. He scowled at his assailant as he got up, wiping imaginary dust off of his academy uniform. He settled back into his sparring stance as his opponent relaxed her body. Hinata had a rather odd fighting style that Naruto absolutely could not get through. When people said that the best offense was a good defense, Hinata put that into words; it was easy to see why the powerhouse Maine had lost in their first sparring match. After all, it's impossible to use all of that power if you can't land a hit on your target, and it gets even harder when your target strikes back every time you miss.

Naruto had always relied upon his stamina and power to win him fights but ever since he had started sparring with Hinata, he had learned that that was not enough. Their first match, Hinata had left him unconscious on the floor with not a scratch on her. Ever since then she had gone easier on him.

"You ready for round four?" Hinata asked him calmly, a light sheen of sweat covering her body.

Naruto couldn't help but scowl again; she wasn't even breathing that hard. Instead of answering he rushed forward, swinging a right hook which Hinata swatted aside with contemptuous ease. She followed up her block with a jab at his throat and was pleasantly surprised when Naruto redirected the jab to the side. Naruto grinned as well, obviously pleased with himself, before Hinata delivered three quick strikes to his gut before jumping back out of his reach.

He paused for a moment to catch his breath and was shocked when he saw Hinata rushing in for an attack. She feinted to his left before delivering a vicious kick to his ribs. As Naruto began to recover, she dashed forward and drove her fist into his gut, causing him to double over in pain. However, Hinata was not done with him yet. As he doubled over she twisted her body to her left before spinning around to her right, consequentially elbowing him into an upright position and then slamming him to the ground with a punch to the chest.

Naruto lay on the ground, gasping in pain as he wondered just what the hell had happened to him. Hinata edged into his vision, looking slightly embarrassed. Naruto didn't have the strength to glare at her at the moment. "Sorry about that," Hinata said sheepishly, playing with her fingers as Naruto continued to stare up at the ceiling, "I realized that you had figured out my fighting pattern too well so I decided to switch things up. I thought it might be good for you to practice being on the defensive for once."

"How about… a little warning… next time?" Naruto gasped out as he stuck out his hand weakly to the skilled girl. Hinata grabbed his hand and pulled him up roughly, causing the disoriented boy to stumble for a few steps. "So, are we done here?"

Hinata smiled at him before nodding and walking out of the ring, saying over her shoulder, "You're going to need your rest. We've got a big day tomorrow.

-. . .-

Hinata tried to ignore the politician standing three steps in front of her, though the multiple speakers he had set up on the stage made it the next thing to impossible. Instead, she tried focusing on the crowd like Sasuke was. She doubted the stoic boy had blinked the entire hour they'd been at the city center. Naruto had gotten bored, as was expected, and was messing with something on his tactical wrist pad.

They had gotten their battle armor just this morning which made Naruto absolutely ecstatic. However, Hinata got the feeling it was more of a way to show off what the academy could offer than it was an approval of their skills. The academy needed this speech to go well, and anything they could do to help, even if it was just standing there looking intimidating, would be needed.

Even though she knew it was all just a show of power, Hinata couldn't help but be almost as excited as Naruto. Maybe after this boring mission was finished they'd be assigned a real mission. Checking her own "tacpad" for the time, Hinata saw something falling from the sky. It looked almost like a . . . person! Hinata whirled around in time to see a man in black battle armor fall to the ground, using a built-in propulsion pack to stop the fall from injuring himself.

"Naruto, behind you!" Hinata yelled out to Naruto, who had just started turning to look at the man who had landed behind him. Before Naruto could act the large man sent him flying with a solid punch to the helmet. Naruto landed in the crowd causing everyone to stare at the man in black, who started walking menacingly towards the politician, though he stopped when Sasuke and Hinata jumped in his way, both in their fighting stances. He sized them up as the crowd watched on, apparently entranced with the spectacle before them.

"Hinata," Sasuke whispered to her in the dead silence, "go check on Naruto. I'll hold him off until you two get back."

"I don't think so!" Hinata yelled back at him, "We'll take him together. Besides, it takes more than that to keep Naruto down."

"Thanks for your confidence Hinata," Naruto grunted as he stepped up next to them, in his own fighting stance.

"Well, speak of the devil," Hinata said fondly, her eyes never leaving the man in black. She couldn't figure out what he'd been waiting for but she knew he was done now. He nodded at the three of them before cracking his neck left and right. Hinata felt a bead of sweat trickle down her forehead, despite the cool interior of her dark blue armor. This man thought he could take on three actual soldiers by himself and they weren't even done with their first year!

"Alright, let's go!" Hinata yelled to her teammates, shaking her head clear of any negative thoughts. As one they charged at the man in black, Hinata swinging the first punch.

.-. ... -.- .-. . -..- .. .-

**Alright, now I'm sorry for the cliffhanger, I truly am. It's just that I haven't worked on this story in a long time and so I had to get back into the groove of things. I have two other stories and one idea I'm nursing alongside this one, so it's difficult to keep up with things. Anyway, I'll make the next chapter at least 2k words, maybe more.**

**Please review, I like hearing what you all have to say, honestly and truly. There is a big fight scene coming up next chapter, so stick around if you like that stuff. There'll also be a plot twist so that ought to be fun. Well, I hope you liked it.**

**Foxtrot Agent 21, logging off.**


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